


Homemaker

by RainonyourBack



Series: Sugar // Spice [3]
Category: Shaman King (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Inferiority Complex, Love Confessions, Love Letters, Polyamory, SK Valentine's Week 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29337540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainonyourBack/pseuds/RainonyourBack
Summary: How do you confess to people who are larger than life?
Relationships: Asakura Hao/Iron Maiden Jeanne/Tamamura Tamao
Series: Sugar // Spice [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151264
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Homemaker

Tamao considered the blank card in front of her and then scowled at it. It felt daunting, immense, mocking almost.

“You still haven’t gotten anywhere,” a voice said from behind her, and she jumped. Hao hovered there, his strange ghostly shape adorned with crossed arms and a stupid smirk. It was enough to make her flush.

“I… I’ll get to it in time,” she mumbled.

With a sigh, he moved to sit across from her and took stock. Tamao was tense, waiting for his judgment with clear reticence. The card looked nice, from what he could tell from its insides: not pre-printed with some vacuous message, but cut as if from watercolor paper carefully folded.

Now that he thought about it, she probably did exactly that. Paint some delicate, sweet picture to symbolize her feelings. How quaint.

He’s not jealous. Gods don’t get jealous.

“You are usually less cowardly than this,” he pointed out, perhaps a little cruelly, as he reached out to poke her forehead.

She felt it, the slight shiver of a ghost coming through, and snapped back: “It’s not cowardly! I just… don’t know what to write yet.”

“It’s very simple, though.”

“But it’s not! If it were, I would be done already,” she mumbled, putting her calligraphy pen back down. Was she going to write in kanji?

“I don’t think Jeanne reads Japanese,” he reminded her. She avoided his gaze. “What’s stopping you?”

Tamao took a deep breath and put her head down on both her hands. There was a mumble, too low for him to hear. “Sorry, didn’t quite catch that. Come on, it will help to tell someone what’s percolating in your head.”

She raised a face that looked positively miserable, as if trying to figure him out. Then, just as he was about to prod deeper, she let it out, all at once:

“How can you tell someone how you feel without feeling like a burden? Especially when you don’t even know if they _like_ people that way? I have nothing to offer,” Tamao explained, clearly suffering from the humiliation. “I know how to take care of a child and a house, but with people like Jeanne and you it doesn’t even come close to mattering.”

Hao had to take a few seconds. “I see,” he said, after, because he knew leaving a long pause wouldn’t do. “That’s heavy.”

“Yes.”

“You know, I can’t speak for Jeanne, even though I think I have a pretty good grasp of what goes on in her head, but these things do matter,” he said slowly. “You know how to take charge when no one else can. You put in the work. If I received one such card from you,” and he smiled pleasantly, as if merely joking, “I wouldn’t worry about you flaking out. You put in the work in all that you do. And…”

“And?”

She looked at him like a moth in front of a flame. Easily charmed, he thought. Then again, seeing someone, truly seeing them, always had intense effects. Souls are sensitive to these things. Was he ready to admit he was being very honest, here and now?

“And, making a home is no small skill,” he said softly. “I know I would appreciate it. I know Jeanne would.”

“She does,” Tamao said, eyes flitting down to her work. Then quickly, she dipped her pen in the inkwell, and quickly wrote something down. Then she carefully blew on it. Hao tilted his head.

“She does?”

“Yes.” And Tamao closed her card, bowing down so she wouldn’t have to look at his face as she held the card out for him to take. “This is for you, if you would take it.”


End file.
